June 13, 2010

"Nooo, I have not had implants," said Palin. "I think a report like that is about as real and truthful that Todd and I are divorcing or that I bought a place in the Hamptons or that Trig is not my own child.

"And we still put up with that garbage, too."

Speculation was rampant after photos of the former Alaskan governor at the Belmont Stakes showed her looking a little more buxom than usual.

"'Boobgate' is all over the Internet, because there are a lot of bored, idle bloggers and reporters with nothing else to talk about," Palin said in the interview.

Come on, Sarah, don't put down bloggers generally. And don't put down talking about breasts generally. I reject the idea that breasts belong at the bottom of the list of things to talk about. Breasts are important. They mean something. Let's not minimize their significance in our culture. They are the subject of many journals, books, and movies. I have taken my knocks for talking about the meaning of breasts in politics (though, of course, the knockers were my political opponents, motivated to squelch what was a criticism of Bill Clinton, whose attraction to Lewinskis was well-known ). So I will talk about breasts, and it's not at all for lack of better raw material. Breasts are big! Let's talk about them!

Now, speaking of breasts and bloggers, what amuses me — aside from the endless obsession with Sarah Palin, specifically, and with the physical aspects of female politicians, generally — is the low level of knowledge of breasts on the part of the Boobgate bloggers. They didn't seem to realize that different bras and different kinds of shirts and jackets affect the way breasts look. A woman can draw attention to her breasts or downplay them. In professional settings and for political appearances, women tend to wear jackets. Even when jackets are fitted through the midsection, they flatten and disguise the curve of the chest. That's the point: to blunt the point.

By contrast, the contour of the breasts is accentuated by a knit top — especially if it's thin, clingy, and light-colored, like the one Sarah Palin wore to the Belmont Stakes. And when a woman wears such a shirt, it's particularly easy to perceive the existence of nipples. Everyone knows they are in there, but reasonably modest women — like Sarah Palin — try to avoid the nipple protrusion of the sort you can see in this photo of that woman who's suing her ex-employer for objecting to the way she dressed for work. The way to do that — and I laugh at people who write about breasts but don't know this! — is to wear a bra with a reasonably thick layer of foam padding.

I feel sorry for the bloggers who know so little about breasts that when they saw that Palin photograph, their first explanation was surgery. Before you think scalpel, think Occam's razor: the simplest explanation is most likely. Palin was wearing a t-shirt and a t-shirt bra. Now, go, get a life, and some real experience of your own in this fleshly world, you blogger losers.

Not only that, but one of the purported "before" pictures is the Newsweek/Runner's World cover. Has no one heard of a sports bra? The whole point of a sports bra is to compress one's rack into submission. (In fact, some larger-boobed women wear two for extra smushing!) I thought that the sports bra was one of those standard-issue garments of which we were all aware by now. Apparently not.

Now that's a great F-slip there because my thought, while reading this, is "Ann doesn't get it.":

I don't want to see your breasts, talk about your breasts, or think about your breasts. This idea women have a right to shove them in my face pisses me off. They want to play both ends while claiming no to - I'm a sex object/treat me as an equal - when to do so is a lie.

That's one thing I like about men - and I'm not talking about gay guys or metrosexual poofs here - we're just trying to get on with our lives, trying to be productive, while the rest of you are trying your best to distract us from that with things you had nothing to with. You breast size, or the bulge in your pants, is no accomplishment - even if you paid for them. You're still a worthless human being, I don't care how you look.

And don't put down talking about breasts generally. I reject the idea that breasts belong at the bottom of the list of things to talk about. Breasts are important. They mean something. Let's not minimize their significance in our culture.

"we're just trying to get on with our lives, trying to be productive, while the rest of you are trying your best to distract us from that with things you had nothing to with..."

gosh, you're so right. that's exactly what women do. we work hard, from school to the work force, we know nothing about the joy that comes in making a contribution to society and to the world. we just prance around looking for a man. that's the key to happiness.

If you belong to a teenage clique, you despise anybody who will not submit to the clique.

To belong to the teenage clique nowadays (and that clique extends to the age of 35 or 40 for many people), you must admire homosexuality above all things, loathe the idea of women bearing children and, in general, regard sexuality as simply a form of recreation.

Anybody who exists outside the clique is a threat. Crack prefers the word "cult" to "clique," and he may be right.

The members of the clique are infuriated that Palin lives an adult, heterosexual life and has born five children. They are determined to drag her down into the degraded shithole in which they live.

Between Sully and other deep thinkers enraged by Gov. Palin, I believe the only body part they have not discussed is her colon.

There's been no discussion of her, ahem, grooming habits. And you can be 100% sure that I would know of any discussion if there were one. I can sniff out such things (the discussions, not the subjects of the discussions ... at least not in most cases).

"we're just trying to get on with our lives, trying to be productive, while the rest of you are trying your best to distract us from that with things you had nothing to with."

Oh I KNOW. The nerve of those women, imagining that they had ever done anything as productive as what those big manly men do, showing up at work and in public places with breasts attached to their bodies! Why don't they just stay home, or when they absolutely must go out, have the common decency to put on a burka?

It's funny how the cons think that Palin's looks are what get under people's skin.

What's funny is that they assume anyone else really cares.

I really don't care what someone looks like. Especially if they are as simple-minded and as unidimensional in what they want as Palin is, that's a huge turn-off. And Palin always looked (and acted) too snide for me to ever find her attractive, physically or otherwise.

But Republicans seem to think that the simple equation of (LOOKS + FEMALE BODY PARTS + POLITICAL AMBITION) is some kind incredible innovation, and one that will be irresistible to EVERYONE.

In reality, it's really only irresistible to white Republican males.

As I've suspected, they must feel awfully repressed to find such banality so enticing.

And because they believe that Obama represents a cult of personality, they have responded with their own cult behaviors, and an idea that is not new to Republicans or to political history in general: The fertility cult. This is just an update of that same old theme, which hearkens back to primitive human society. Yawn.

As the (admittedly) increasingly nutty Andrew Sullivan recently said (while wearing a mullet, I might add):

It's an absolute dream. You have these women with big tits and a beautiful face who can go hunting with you. I mean, that's a Republican wet dream. I mean, if you're over 50, that's awesome.

Keep coming up with the brilliant contributions to our politics, guys. Plato and Publius have nothing on your shtick.

mRed said... Between Sully and other deep thinkers enraged by Gov. Palin, I believe the only body part they have not discussed is her colon.

6/13/10 9:11 AM

Don't be giving them any ideas!

I do not get why they hate Sarah Palin so much. She is not some anti homosexual hater. Her positions on most subjects are rather mainstream although to the right. Her Christianity, while Evangelical, is rather normal and hardly extreme.

I suggest that white Republican males petition their local strip clubs to hire forty-something women who wear glasses and are willing to go up onstage and engage in a mock debate with some guy pretending to be Joe Biden.

That would probably get this out of their system.

But no, they prefer to keep that charade at the center of our nation's agenda and pretend that it constitutes the serious business of governing.

You've all reduced yourselves to a bunch of little voting-booth boners.

I guess this is their response to the supposed outrage they expressed at Bill Clinton's antics - which they've now apparently internalized and appropriated in their own way.

Rage, lust and greed. The core Republican principles can now be succinctly summarized. No ideas more complex than those core drives need be considered.

Man you crack me up because you're always so right! I mean, I did a search query "sarah palin breast implants" which turned up a notorious right wing cesspool as the first result.

I mean, those Republicans over there assuming anyone really cares about body parts with their simple-minded and unidimensional outlook. Silly white Republican males the web over are the only ones concerned with such pettiness.

It's not like liberals are running polls about this or anything like that.

(You know Ritmo, no one takes more words to shove their foot in their mouth than you dude.)

I have taken my knocks for talking about the meaning of breasts in politics (though, of course, the knockers were my political opponents, motivated to squelch what was a criticism of Bill Clinton, whose attraction to Lewinskis was well-known ).

That HuffPo thing was just liberal Hollywood's response to something they're much better at than you are (which is why your side comes back with the strange combination of both jealousy, lust and pride - i.e. "Hey! We may not be as cool as Hollywood, but we can be into looks and horny too! We just apply it to our own politicians rather than actors!")

Los Angeles knows from glitter, greed and implants. Hollywood is way ahead of you on that. The difference is, they are not driving the political left the way your naughty gun-hunting book-banner is driving the right. ("Naughty librarian" would more accurately fit the bill, but describing Palin as a librarian is an insult to literacy).

Hollywood can expose how far behind you are on selling that message and where it falls flat. So at least they're good for something when it comes to politics.

Breasts are important. They mean something. Let's not minimize their significance in our culture.

Breasts may be important, but so are bottoms. I love women who are splendiferously well-balanced in this regard and I whole-heartedly support rh and GMay in their remarks. Hips and buttocks, especially the full, round, high-slung, saucily canted, firmly muscled ones, are every bit as deserving of our inspection.

I would further opine that the biggest boobs in Boobgate are the ones who need to find one more thing about Miss Sarah that they can titter about like ten year olds in a school yard..

It's especially funny because many of the Rs (including Palin) do seem to be making moves that are consistent w/ laying the ground work for a 2012 run. So, maybe it's not too early.

But, even if you (naively) believe that the Rs aren't politicking for 2012 yet, it is pretty funny that Palin openly acknowledged that political work is best described as "pimpin themselves" (or herself).

I apologize for not realizing that GMay was confusing the role of the high school jock who lusts after the Prom Queen and supported her for student class president, with the girls who thought she was a bimbo and criticized her looks.

What's with that? Is this just some silly fashion trend driving that, because I see so many young women today who don't seem to have hips.

Personally, I just don't find it attractive since I'm not into a masculine appearing waistline.

Sure, you don't. Now, what percentage of fashion designers and fashion critics find a masculine-appearing waistline more attractive than a feminine one?

Gay men and straight women drive the fashion industry, and they create clothes that treat feminine curves and body proportions as the enemy. This is also why they go with hyper-thin models; you need to starve a woman before her natural fat distribution ceases to be feminine.

Oh geez, Michael! So easily distracted is the lusty Republican base! If you want to talk about boobs in an artistic way, as the post intended, no one's getting in the way. All I did was respond to Stephen Colbert (I mean, Pogo's) assertion that Palin's looks enrage people (and by "the right people" I assume he means female voters who look to more admirable qualities in their public officials than breast size), and GMay went wild with it.

Of course your second point being a complete fabrication of your own fevered imagination (unless you have some sort of proof) along with the rest of the fluff in your comments, I still felt compelled because I actually made the mistake of rubbernecking one of your comments.

I know that those two outlets aren't as influential on liberal opinion as say those intellectual giants like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, but certainly you can begrudge them some respect in the liberal arena, no?

You are alive! Go and enjoy your life today! Do you think Althouse is sitting at home, thinking about breasts and politics? No! She wrote this and then went out to enjoy the day! Don't take the bait, follow her example! This is ridiculous!

I think "Boobgate" pretty much captures the patheitc nature of the attacks on Palin. What are her crimes? She's smart, successful, happily married with a nice family, good looking, well built, and fun.

Lefties tend to hate fun, and funny stuff--John Stewart one notable exception. Now that guy is hilarious.

A normal person would look at the Belmont snap and think, "Nice looking lady; wonder if her horse won," and then forgeddaboudit. Or have some fun with it. There's millions of good boob jokes. Remember the scene from "Young Frankenstein"? "What a pair of knockers," now that's the ticket.

But no, the lefties had to take a perfectly wholesome situation, a good looking woman, with a nice rack having fun with her husband, and try score political points, and in a boring, catty, long winded and stupid way. Ritmo anyone?

As far as the oil, it's all ups and downs. I think we have some better efforts going on to contain it, but those are hit and miss, too. P&J Oyster House is close to closing down - they're the biggest and best oyster supply in town, 134 years old, and it breaks my heart.

The idea that any more than 5% at most of the left cares about any of this is beyond comprehension.

Huffington writes about petty social issues involving famous people - in politics or not, and Wonkette arose from a gossip/scandal site aimed at politicians, and then sought a niche in hyperbolic satire.

Beth--thanks for update--we are doing fine (I am in Memphis--but did go to Lafayette and Eunice for MardiGras this year--the corrie d'Mardi Gras was fantastic--probably 10 hours of dancing to local cajun groups). We are already seeing price of shrimp go up and some loss of coastal fish in the local international market--Our oysters here tend to be blue points from the upper atlantic, so that hasnt hurt us too bad--We arent going thru anything as bad as your folks are down there. Take care and be safe.

Freeman, remember Vanessa Williams' dethroning as Miss America, because of some vaguely humiliating pictures? She regrouped and sang and danced and acted her way back into the limelight - and she's very good, so I'm happy. I think right around the time she did a TV revival of Bye, Bye, Birdie, I developed my theory that "You really, really have to WANT to be famous." Some people just don't let anything stop them.

Roger, I've never gotten out to the Cajun Mardi Gras. Maybe we'll do that next year. I don't know why I assumed you were in Shreveport or thereabouts - Memphis, though, is one of our favorite road trip destinations.

Maybe you'd care to explain why HuffPo is routinely considered one of the top Liberal blogs and that Wonkette is near the top? It's funny because no one else seems to assign the qualifiers you do.

First off, it might be nice if you'd explain how you got your stats for "top Liberal blogs".

Second, Huff is not a blog. It's a monster series of blogs and other doo-dads embedded within the attempted format of a traditional, on-line newspaper. It's based in California, was started by the influential ex-wife of a California politician, and both features celebrity guest-bloggers and caters more heavily to celebrity fluff events - the way People magazine or even the Enquirer would, depending on how tabloid the feel of that celebrity piece of the day wants to be.

Seems to me that its pieces on Palin would fit in perfectly with her confusion between the role of serious politician and celebrity - but this is a problem Republicans have grappled with repeatedly since nominating and lionizing Ronald Reagan.

And third, Wonkette is so hyperbolic in its satire that no one in their right mind mistakes it for serious political analysis. Maybe some people find it easier to take a condescending stance generally with people who have been skewered in an on-line cross between The Onion and Saturday Night Live. But to believe that Wonkette represents where the left finds a serious outlet for journalism or political writing on the news of the day and the figures featured within it strains credulity. The commenters and commentary alone show you that its readership's main goal is to test their chops at witty one-liners.

Even John Stewart can draw a starker line between straight comedy and more serious thought.

You linked to no sites on stats in your 12:52 comment, and if you expect me to look at earlier comments you can stop being an asshole and refer to them directly.

Other than that, I'm not surprised that you judge an entire comment by the first line. Appearances really are more important to you guys than substance, aren't they? (as the conversation here and everywhere else reveals). Once the left accepted that you really are that shallow then it became a lot easier to find and exploit your sore spots.

Keep not reading, keep not understanding. You were the one who asked for an explanation, not me.

Ritmo--we had a conversation on an earlier posting and Plato was brought up--Dont know how familiar you are with the various dialogues, but in the republic (prefer Jowett's translation). Early in the dialogue, Plato and Cephalus are talking about aging--Socrates acknowledges his age and says he is happy to be free of the raging monster (one assumes he is referring to testosterone overload)

Perhaps Ms Palin, Politics, Hufpo are best left to people free of the raging monster? My .02

How shameful Palin is to attack her competition. Doesn't she know that to openly live as a normal healthy women that exercises daily and lives a heterosexual life style with a husband is taken to be a form of cruel hate speech unfair to all Democrat Story Tellers. She is like someone telling the Global Warmists that the world has cooled off for ten years. She is a "Women are oppressed victims" Denier. When she boots Obambi out, then the final phase of the media stories that she is a bitch will start. But Sarah takes persecution better than many men can.

Once the divorce is final and Todd has taken Trigg to raise , and she has closed on the house in the Hamptons, then those breasts will become more the point than ever to her old white guy fans. Heck, she will have become Dolly Parton Madison fighting for the Flag on flag day.

If Wonkette and the Huffington Post aren't sufficiently serious for you (though Arianna Huffington is a regular guest on This Week and all that), what about the Daily Kos? They appear to have taken the posts down, but there's a Google cache of at least one (not sure the link is going to work as the URL is so long, but we can but try:)

Sure Fen. I'll round up a village idiot from South Carolina - maybe that Lt. Gov who made the comment about school lunch programs 'feeding strays"...and you bring The Ya'betcha Babe ... cage match, 1 fall....

Big boobs and modest brains run in the Palin family, making them near-ideal based on conservative men's family values.Look at Palin's daughter. A natural high-hormoned breeder, a walking milk factory, and no way college material.

"Gosh, you're so right. that's exactly what women do. we work hard, from school to the work force, we know nothing about the joy that comes in making a contribution to society and to the world. we just prance around looking for a man. that's the key to happiness."

I suggest that white Republican males petition their local strip clubs to hire forty-something women who wear glasses and are willing to go up onstage and engage in a mock debate with some guy pretending to be Joe Biden

Secret fantasies don't become you.

Rage, lust and greed. The core Republican principles can now be succinctly summarized. No ideas more complex than those core drives need be considered.

Since when were those core republican principals? These are core human drives for those not in control of their emotional states. I wonder what Clinton would have to say on this treatise of yours? Touch my monkey?

That HuffPo thing was just liberal Hollywood's response to something they're much better at than you are (which is why your side comes back with the strange combination of both jealousy, lust and pride - i.e. "Hey! We may not be as cool as Hollywood, but we can be into looks and horny too! We just apply it to our own politicians rather than actors!")

Los Angeles knows from glitter, greed and implants. Hollywood is way ahead of you on that. The difference is, they are not driving the political left the way your naughty gun-hunting book-banner is driving the right. ("Naughty librarian" would more accurately fit the bill, but describing Palin as a librarian is an insult to literacy).

Hollywood can expose how far behind you are on selling that message and where it falls flat. So at least they're good for something when it comes to politics.

What a waste of type you are. Why the fuck don't you just say, Palin is hot, you feel dirty thinking about it. Talk about the solemn vapors.

This talk about Palin and her underwear reminded me of a poem from the 60's:

Underwear I didn’t get much sleep last nightthinking about underwearHave you ever stopped to considerunderwear in the abstractWhen you really dig into itsome shocking problems are raisedUnderwear is something we all have to deal withEveryone wearssome kind of underwearEven Indians wear underwearEven Cubanswear underwearThe Pope wears underwear I hopeThe Governor of Louisiana wears underwearI saw him on TVHe must have had tight underwearHe squirmed a lotUnderwear can really get you in a bindYou have seen the underwear ads for men and womenso alike but so differentWomen’s underwear holds things upMen’s underwear holds things downUnderwear is one thingmen and women do have in commonUnderwear is all we have between usYou have seen the three-color pictureswith crotches encircledto show the areas of extra strengthwith three-way stretchpromising full freedom of actionDon’t be deceivedIt’s all based on the two-party systemwhich doesn’t allow much freedom of choicethe way things are set upAmerica in its Underwearstruggles thru the nightUnderwear controls everything in the endTake foundation garments for instanceThey are really fascist formsof underground governmentmaking people believesomething but the truthtelling you what you can of can’t doDid you ever try to get around a girdlePerhaps Non-Violent Actionis the only answerDid Gandhi wear a girdle?Did Lady Macbeth wear a girdle?Was that why Macbeth murdered sleep?

And the spot she was always rubbing -Was it really her underwear?Modern anglosaxon ladiesmust have huge guilt complexesalways washing and washing and washingOut damned spotUnderwear with spots very suspiciousUnderwear with bulges very shockingUnderwear on clothesline a great flag of freedomSomeone has escaped his UnderwearMay be naked somewhereHelp!But don’t worryEverybody’s still hung up in itThere won’t be no real revolutionAnd poetry still the underwear of the soulAnd underwear still coveringa multitude of faults

in the geological sense -strange sedimentary stones, inscrutable cracks!If I were you I’d keep asidean oversize pair of winter underwearDo not go naked into that good nightAnd in the meantimekeep calm and warm and dryNo use stirring ourselves up prematurely‘over Nothing’Move forward with dignityhand in vestDon’t get emotionalAnd death shall have no dominionThere’s plenty of time my darlingAre we not still young and easy?Don’t shout.

But it sure would be entertaining if you could do a remake of your little rant: "Elites Should Not Be Above The Law". The acrobatics alone should earn you some more weed. And WTF are you still doing in my country?

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings, who yesterday declared that the dismissal of the charge against Sullivan violated "the bedrock principle of our legal system that all persons stand equal before the law."

You folks are missing the point, why do they chose these particular descriptions because they undermineher authenticity, her fidelity, herintegrity, her very sense of motherhood, I mean how else couldan anti American radical, with notrack record of accomplishment everbe accepted. . .

The problem, from a human development point of view is that we share almost all of our DNA with our two chimp species relatives, and they have much smaller, functional, breasts, and not decorative ones like human females do. And, of course ditto for the other apes, primates, and mammals. Human female breasts are much bigger than they need to be to support lactation.

One proposal revolves around the fact that the other apes utilize rear entry when it comes to sex, and humans are evolved for front entry. And some apes, or at least primates, utilize signaling on their rear ends to indicate female, and in particular, females in estrus. And the front entry theoretically due to our erect, walking, posture.

The theory is that human female breasts evolved to mimic buttocks, and therefore to bring the males around to the front of their mates, instead of the rear. And, since human females pretty much hide their estrus, the breasts are always prominent.